Hello beloved reader! Welcome back to the Apocrypha, the exclusive newsletter where I share my favorite writing craft hacks and behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry. This month we’re walking through my ten tips for fast drafting (and I apologize for being late getting you the April newsletter; I got whisked into the whirlwind of tour prep!), so in the spirit of speed, let’s get right into it!
What Is Fast Drafting?
Simply, “fast” is relative. Every writer has a different comfort zone in terms of timeline when it comes to getting a draft done, and it’s completely normal for that timeline to fluctuate from project to project. For example, the first draft of A DOWRY OF BLOOD took me about six months, and the first draft of EVOCATION took years.
I cracked my own fast drafting code when I was working as a category romance ghostwriter, because I was quite literally writing like rent was due. A hard deadline and the promise of money goes a long way in helping you forge fast drafting skills, but anyone can build that muscle. And fast drafting IS a muscle, so be patient and gracious with yourself as you work to build up your stamina.
Speed isn’t everything by a long shot, but it’s a great tool to have in your toolbox when you need to bust it out, so let’s dive in! As always, your mileage may vary, so please feel free to cherrypick from these tips and adapt to suit your own schedule, strengths, and needs!
Top Ten Tips For Fast Drafting
Identify Which Drafting Sandbox Is Fastest For You
Your sandbox is simply the environment in which you capture your words. You might be speediest in a Word (or Google) doc, or on an Alphasmart or Freewrite, or with dictation software. Handwriting is probably not the fastest method here, but if you are truly a medieval monk with near-supernatural handwriting stamina, I applaud you. Thrifty tip: you can mimic the experience of an Alphasmart or Freewrite (lofi handheld word processors that only display a few lines of a text at a time and discourage as-you-go editing) by by setting the font color on your word processor to white or very light grey.
Nix The Urge To Edit
As a card-carrying member of the edit-as-you-go club, I completely understand the impulse to re-read the day’s words with the eye towards spit-shining them, or maybe even rewriting them entirely, but we simply do not have time for that! You'll edit later. In this moment, you are a speed demon, and the words must flow. Don't interrupt your stream of consciousness by pausing to nitpick. Always be thinking a couple sentences ahead, and don’t self-censor any of the words that flow out of you. This is anything-goes territory right now.
Bullet Out The Blocking
I will not tell you to meticulously outline every beat of a scene, especially if you aren’t someone who naturally leans towards outlining. However, capturing 2-5 bullet points ahead of time about what, exactly, is going to happen in the scene makes the kind of difference you’ll have to experience to believe. You can even wrap the bulleting into your five minutes or so of warm-up writing at the start of an intensive session, and it will help keep you from losing time to ideating while you write. “Blocking” is a theatre term; it simply means the architecture of where actors (read: characters) are standing, when they cross the stage, and when certain cues happen. A rough sense of blocking in a written scene, and a general idea of any big discussion points, action moments, or motifs that should come up, will save you so much time.
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